


Room To Spare

by slightlyjillian



Category: Gundam Wing
Genre: F/F, Fluff, Second Chances
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2010-12-26
Updated: 2010-12-26
Packaged: 2017-10-14 03:21:19
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,148
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/144790
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/slightlyjillian/pseuds/slightlyjillian
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Noin puts things off until the last minute.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Room To Spare

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Alithea](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Alithea/gifts).



> Alithea asked for Noin/Une for Christmas. I totally botched that up... oops. LOL.

Lucrezia Noin came to the very rude awakening one morning that she had been deceiving herself. Between the late night of dozing through _one more page_ of the novel Relena had loaned her and finding that snow had covered the landscape, making the departure with her shuttle would have to be her priority. While nature provided a perfectly legitimate excuse for missing Sally Po (yet again)--for some reason, this one avoidance (when she was absolutely honest) seemed the worst of them all.

“Am I disappointed too?” she said to no one in particular as she let the curtains fall closed over the brilliant shine of the white drifts. “Was I disappointed each time?”

She had already packed the previous night, and tucking her few remaining possessions into the corners, Noin strapped it shut.

“Nothing left of me in the place.” She glanced around the hotel room. Leaning against the bedpost, she closed her eyes.

Possibly, they could find evidence of her fingerprints in this place? If anyone bothered to look.

***

Wufei rested his wrist along the steering wheel so he could better see his watch. The windshield wipers suddenly lifted and took away another dusting of snow. It had been falling steadily since he answered her call. The tire tracks behind him had already filled again.

A few dark blobs moved along the sidewalks. The traffic lights continued to change in patterns like strange, colorful stars fallen low in the grey sky.

Suddenly the passenger door opened and a rush of cold sat in the seat. Noin’s teeth chattered as she said, “Okay, ready… go.”

He gave her a withering expression that she missed entirely. Her blue eyes stared ahead as if already set in her course of action. His irritation dissolved immediately. He knew that defense all too well. Signaling into traffic, Wufei commented, “You travel light.” The one piece of luggage was between her legs from the rush to get inside the heated car, no doubt.

“Old habits,” Noin answered. So she was listening.

“I could swing by Sally’s. It’s on the way, and you’ve still got time before the shuttle goes. You won’t miss it,” he suggested, lightly as if he merely became aware of the opportunity. Then he laughed at his own joke, “I don’t think it’s going to take off early.”

“I’ll call her from the station.”

***

Six days. She had six days, six mornings and afternoons and evenings when she could have done something. She could have gone to the shop and bought the dress in the window for one chance to wear it. She could have splurged on an outrageously priced meal or even used the free ticket to the theater that the hotel had provided with her reservation.

Each hour seemed full of indecision when suddenly every one of them had slipped beyond her like a sudden inhale and gasp after submerging into the full silence of deep waters.

The bookend debriefings with Une had been painless. Zechs had made certain his reports about Mars were standardized to perfection and she’d only had to scan them in when the Preventer technician had stamped the validation seal on the original.

All that had fit in the luggage as well. She didn’t even need a separate bag for her laptop.

Time seemed to have betrayed her yet again. The signs for the shuttle port were bright green where the wind kept the snow clear.

“Thanks, Wufei.” Noin reached for the door handle as she felt the car ease toward her drop off point.

“Do you want me to stick around?” he asked.

“No, it’s too much to have asked you to leave Mariemaia and the baby for this long,” she couldn’t meet his eyes. “I’m sorry about…”

“Yeah, well, don’t make it another twelve years before you get back here again.” Then he added, “Close the door, woman. It’s cold.”

***

About a dozen other ridiculous individuals, all bundled in scarves and coats, paced the foyer. Their footsteps and conversations punctuated the emptiness even with all the traditional holiday music pulsing through the speaker system. She used her identification badge to get through the various checkpoints. As she did so, she let her fingers run along the well-worn crease. She’d had the same ID since she joined the Preventers. That eight-digit number, deceptively long, had been one of the very first assigned.

“Where are you going?” the customer service clerk asked while attempting her most cheerful smile. Noin wondered if the girl had spent the whole evening stranded at her job.

“Back to space.” Noin didn’t commit to an answer. Honestly, the girl should know better than to ask someone in uniform. Even officially well-known projects had confidentiality protocol.

“Oh,” the girl laughed. “No snow there.”

“I don’t know if it’s any better,” a familiar voice interjected. “Last I checked, space was still pretty darn cold.”

Then the dull sensation of having missed Sally (yet again) swelled into the frantic notion of being _caught_.

***

“Relena asked me to get her book back,” Sally repeated. The excuse had been lame when the former Queen, former Senator, full-time entrepreneur first proposed Sally run the menial errand.

Noin’s brow furrowed, “She didn’t say…”

“And there’s no need for her to send anyone to go get _pulp fiction_ in this kind of weather,” Sally shook her head in equal disbelief. The damp chill of melted snow trickled from the straw-blond hair along her scalp.

“She orchestrated this whole thing?” Noin sounded bitter. Or weary. Likely both.

“I doubt it,” Sally shrugged. “Relena didn’t make it snow either. This is Earth, after all. Unlike Mars… we’re still all natural here.”

Noin made the sound of a mocking laugh, but it didn’t cut. In fact, in provided the last spark of heat necessary to make Sally melt to her toes. Years may go by and they might have passed over more chances than they took, but that attraction stayed all the same. The other woman had aged, but the evidence of time was seen more in the streaks of grey hair along Noin’s temples. As for lines on her face, the woman didn’t smile often enough.

But she hadn’t forgotten how. “So what is it, Sal? You’ve conquered the snow and seen through Relena. What’s your part in this?”

“Your shuttle’s basically empty.” Sally tilted her head to the side. “Plenty of room for me to pick up an extra.” She displayed her ticket.

“Ah, so you had your own scheme…” Noin didn’t seem upset. Not exactly. But it wasn’t quite the encouragement Sally hoped for, the same hope revisited every time, when Noin went back to Mars.

“Wait.” Noin stopped moving. Her arms dropped to her sides. “Where is your luggage?”

“Like I was going to need that?” Sally laughed. Then the truth struck them both. “You always have more than enough room to spare for me.”


End file.
